A HISTORY OF LOVE

A HISTORY OF LOVE
Content
1. What is love?
2. Love’s essence
3. Greek love
4. Neighbourly love
5. The art of seduction
6. Two elements in love
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
IS LOVE AN OBJECT FOR
RESEARCH?
Preliminary definition:
The close relationship,
devotional and friendly to
another person by which our
will and wants are bonded
and through which we
become responsible for his
or her well being.
Love in the sciences:
Psychology (attachment theory)
Theory: Philosophical texts
on eros and on agape
Economy (equality in income,
education etc. probability of
marriage)
Life: Examples from life and
literature
Biology (pheromones – natural
selection)
Neurology (dopamine rich brain
regions – systems of reward and
motivation)
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
SEE WITH THE HEART:
Belonging together – a
conscious choice of partner.
But who or what chooses?
A well founded choice –
founded in the person that
the other is, not in the
qualities or achievements of
the loved person.
”Le cœur a ses raisons que la
raison ne connait point” –
Blaise Pascal 1669
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
PATIENCE, TRUST AND HOPE
” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it
does not boast, it is not proud. It does not
dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not
easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices
with the truth. It always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
HUMAN BEINGS AS
CREATURES OF GREAT
LONGING
The dream of being able to unite
with the greatest
Reunion, devotion and healing –
the need to share with someone
else the joy and sorrows of life
Longing to be who I am when I’m
together with the one I love
Niels Hansen Jacobsen, Dryaden, 1918, bronze, 176 x 92,5 x 77 cm,
KMS5930, SMK.
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
MOTIVATIONAL ASPECTS OF
LOVE:
Passion turned inward in the Passion that grows with
hindrances for love(Tristan
Middle Ages
and Iseult)
Blind passion and hidden
love
Romantic love
The dilemma of
romanticism:
Marital relations due to love
and passion unsuited for
marriage
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
COSMIC LOVE:
Zahrtmann, Kristian : Sokrates og Alkibiades. 1911.
We connect with the missing
part
To see world’s beauty in the
beauty of the lover
We become like what we
love
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
FIRST TIME:
First eye contact with a baby
Attachment
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
SEDUCTION:
Being lifted up by love
(Teresa and Tomas)
Being seduced and used
(Cordelia and Johannes)
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
DESTINY:
Great love and great stories
Shoulder by shoulder in
parallel lives
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
NEIGHBOURLY LOVE:
Agape
Unconditional and
unmotivated love
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
LITERATURE ON LOVE
› Paz,Octavio, The Double Flame: Essays on
Love and Eroticism,trans. Helen Lane (New
York: Harcourt Brace, 1995).
› May, Simon, Love – A History (Yale University
Press 2011)
› Kierkegaard, Søren, Søren Kierkegaard’s
Journals and Papers, vol. 1, A-E, ed. And
trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna Hong
(Bloomington and London: Indiana University
Press, 1967).
› Lear, Jonathan, Love and Its Place in
Nature (New York: Farrar, Straus &
Giroux, 1990)
› Nygren, Anders, Agape and Eros, trans.
Philip S. Watson (Philadelphia;
Westminster Press, 1953)
› Arendt, Hannah, The Human Condition,
(The University of Chicago Press, 1958)
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University
TAK!
Vice-dean Anne Marie Pahuus,
Aarhus University